Expert to Beginner

If you are looking for a quick Halloween project to build this weekend, heres one you can make in an afternoon. Don Steffens posted his candy dispenser on my Facebook page last week and it became a hit with everyone.

Using the same simple dispenser mechanism, you can easily modify this into any character you want. Since the front it clear, I thought it would be fun to make a zombie head and fill it with red candy to represent brains!

If you would like to try this out, heres a template to print out.

Happy Halloween!

*****

I know I spend a lot of time on my soapbox running my loud mouth about hand tools and woodworking powered by last nights pizza. Its something I feel passionate about and I am proud of the skills Ive developed in that realm. However. . . .however, if youve been following my blog for a while youve seen pictures around my shop and youll know that I have the standard array of power tools surrounding me as well. I dont fire them up often, but I like having them around to lift the workload at the right times.

A year and a half ago I added a new electric apprentice to the shop, a 14" bandsaw. It took us a little while to learn how to get along, the old boy is a little more maintenance than my tablesaw ever was and I still feel like I need four hands, a trained monkey, and a perfect full moon when it comes to changing the blade.

Our relationship has been improving since the start and there are things this guy can do that has changed my woodworking like no other tool I have ever held in my hot little hands. I can describe that change with one word. Resawing.

On his great blog Heartwood, Rob Porcaro has recently been writing about band saws vs. table saws. In the midst of balancing the pros and cons of both machines he sums up my feelings about the band saw with one line. "Resawing is a gateway technique that can change how you think about wood." You can resaw with a table saw, and I have done it before but it is not anywhere nearly as smooth or satisfying of a process as it is on the band saw.

It comes down to use and in the process of my Arts and Crafts Spice Chest build I have need of a significant amount of resawn stock. First theres the shelves which support the small apothecary drawers inside the chest. They needed to be brought down to a 1/4" thick. Then theres the drawers themselves with 1/2" thick drawer fronts and 3/8" thick sides and backs, not to mention more 1/4" stock for the bottoms. All in all thats a good pile of resawing.


I started by ripping my stock to width. Cherry for the drawer fronts and pine for the rest.


I use a very simple, shop made fence on my band saw for resawing. Two pine boards glued and screwed at a right angle. The hole you see drilled in it is a hang hole. I clamp it in place with a couple "F" clamps and often I use a chisel to gauge the thickness of cut. If I want to resaw down to 1/2", I space a 1/2" chisel blade between the fence and the saw blade.


I dont make the space tight to the chisels width. I leave around 1/16th of an inch space to account for the set of the saws teeth and to plane away the saw marks. Im not worried about achieving micrometer perfect thicknesses when Im done. I dont believe thats what woodworking is about.


Then its a matter of feeding the stock through. You can see under my right hand the scrap of wood I used as a sacrificial push block to finish the cut safely.


In the end it really doesnt take long to run a bunch of white pine through this way. The cherry on the right was run through as well. The drawer stock is prepped to thickness. After this comes smoothing the saw marks away, sizing it to dimension, and more dovetails.


The stock that was resawn to 1/4" was smoothed, sized, and set into the stopped dados of the spice chest cabinet.

Putting together the drawers would have to wait for another day. Before I moved forward I had to answer the design questions that had bothered me since the first rough drawings made an appearance in my sketch book. The base.

Ratione et Passionis
Oldwolf

From Highland Woodworking
 
I just received the new issue of Wood News Online, the monthly newsletter by Highland Woodworking. I always like reading this newsletter as it’s been full of great information. The new video series, The Highland Woodworker has also been great to watch. Only two episodes in but it’s a great show…and free if you can believe that! The first episode was with Roy Underhill and the last one featured Brian Boggs and Ron Brese. Great to see these guys in action and get a glimpse into their work shops.
I was surprised to see a new review for my book- Made by Hand at the top of this new issue and thought I’d share it here.
Cheers!


Made by Hand: A Delightful Journey into the
World of Hand Tool Possibilities
by J. Norman Reid
Delaplane, Virginia
Working wood by hand is becoming increasingly popular. What’s the attraction? Perhaps it’s the elimination of noxious dust, the satisfaction of building something beautiful entirely by hand, achieving closer tolerances than are possible with powered machines, or working quietly and achieving a deeper intimacy with the wood that’s our medium of expression.
Whatever the reason for choosing to work with hand tools, Fidgen’s book is a diverting introduction to working wood by hand. Written in a highly accessible style, more like a conversation with a woodworking friend than a beginner’s manual, Fidgen explains the essentials for setting up a hand tool shop—basic tools, sharpening, constructing key appliances, processes for design and construction—then progresses to six innovative and beautiful projects, each building on skills developed in constructing the previous ones.
He begins with tools: layout tools, cutting tools, hand planes, special-purpose planes and tools, and chisels. He gives an introductory discussion of sharpening, urging the use of honing guides to assure consistency in the shape of the cutting edges.
Next he covers several appliances to guide and ease handwork: bench hooks, miter hooks, shooting boards, winding sticks and workhorses or, as he calls them, shop ‘bents.’ For each of these, Fidgen discusses and illustrates their construction—perhaps these will be your first handmade projects—but provides little information about their use.
He next progresses to processes of construction. Included are making a cut list, selecting wood, planing, sawing, cutting dovetails and making mortises and tenons. Readers will find these sections interesting and useful, though more detailed treatments are available elsewhere.
The second half of the book consists of six projects that build on each other and so are intended to be undertaken in sequence. The first is a cabinetmaker’s tool chest, a small handheld case to carry hand tools to a job site or store them in the woodshop. Following that is a hanging wall cabinet featuring half-blind dovetails, sliding dovetails, a pair of inside drawers and a single-board door. Third is a side table that bears hints of the Shaker style but is clearly modern in design. This project employs six different joints and is intended to stretch your hand tool skills one step further. The next project is a charming small bookcase that features through tenons and front doors with mullions backed by Japanese paper. After that comes a cabinet with six drawers and a door on the left side. The final project is a hunt board or sideboard with sliding panel doors.
The book concludes with a gallery of some of Fidgen’s other work that is intended to inspire other possibilities with handwork.
The large-format, beautifully illustrated book is accompanied by a 45-minute DVD that gives a personal overview of the tools Fidgen employs in his hand tool-only workshop. Introduced by a song, “Working Wood,” written and performed admirably by Fidgen himself, the DVD contains recommendations and tips on selecting, buying and what’s essential for getting started with hand tools.
In sum, I found this book a pleasure to read. For the armchair woodworker, it’s a delightful journey into the world of possibilities. For the beginning hand tool worker, it provides enough information to get you started. The experienced hand tool enthusiast will already know much of what he presents but may find the review enjoyable and the projects inspirational. In short, there’s a little something for everyone here.

And by a new project I mean that I am building an old project but in a bigger size.  I am making another Ice Chest/Cooler box but this time with a full-size ice chest with a drain.  You can see the original prototype build here: http://blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-make-cedar-ice-chestcooler-box.html

I found a good size ice chest on sale at Target the other day and plan on making this new cooler box for my Fathers for his birthday.  This one will be bigger than the old one, have handles on the sides, a drain spigot, a bottom shelf, and a bottle opener mounted to the front.  I also plan on sanding and staining this one.

My tree house attachment method met with some failure last week, and Im lucky the tree house is still in the trees.

Somethings not quite right . . .

I began my tree house construction by researching methods of attachment which would allow the trees to move without tearing the tree house apart. I came upon the Garnier Limb, which is a special bolt designed to hold a tree house. When combined with the appropriate corresponding bracket, the Garnier Limb allows the tree house to move interdependently of the trees. Becuase Garnier Limbs were so expensive, I came up with a similar method which used commercially available 3/4" galvanized bolts.


I wrote about my attachment design process in my first Tree House post. Dan Wright of treehousespupplies.com commented that my method would only hold 10% of what their Treehouse Attachment Bolt would hold and that. I acknowledged that my design was weaker, but I thought would still be more than strong enough.

Last Thursday I woke to find that I was wrong. As I walked out to my truck on my way to work, I noticed that the tree house didnt look quite right. Once I made it across the yard and to the tree house, I found that one of the bolt had sheared at the tree, and a corner of the tree house deck was hanging down about 18".

I immediately made supports out of some scrap 2x8 to prevent further damage. That night I made more permanent temporary supports out of sistered 2x4. I added one of these supports to each of the three (3) corners held up by my homemade tree house support.
On reflection, I suppose the Garnier Limb or Treehouse Attachment Bolt would have been a better option. At least the failure that did occur didnt hurt anyone and nothing is damaged beyond repair.

In the coming weeks Ill get back to it and the tree house will soon be as good as new.

Adding fabric to a lampshade is easy and one of my favorite ways to personalize a space.

What you will need:

1. Lampshade
2. Fabric (about 1/2 yard per shade - 54" width fabric (maybe less) - I would use a heavier weight fabric, this is a duck cotton which worked well - an indoor/outdoor fabric would work even better because of its stiffness
3. Craft glue
4. Tape (to temporarily hold fabric until glue dries)
5. Ribbon for trim

I started by cutting the fabric the exact height of the shade

Start at the seam on the shade, apply a thin layer of craft glue on the edge and adhere the end of your fabric


Use tape to hold in place (make sure to press down hard because you will be pulling tight!

Go around the shade pulling tight and applying tape at the edges to help hold in place (it is helpful to have another pair of hands to help hold in place)


When you get to the other end - fold the end and iron to get a crisp line - apply a thin layer of glue and use tape to hold in place.


I used bias tape for the trim - normally I use ribbon but couldnt find any that I liked - so decided to give this a try! When selecting trim, make sure to bring a sample of the fabric to hold underneath to make sure you cant see the fabric through the trim.


Trim any excess fabric off of the edges of the shade with sharp scissors


Starting at the fabric seam - place the trim slightly under the fabric fold - working in small sections, apply a thin layer of craft glue to the edge and then apply the trim slightly past the fabric to hide the edge - pull tight and tape as you go to hold the ribbon until the glue dries - when you are at the end, fold the trim under the pressed fabric fold and glue in place.

Reattach the shade and you now have a one of a kind lamp!


If you havent already, make sure to enter for a chance to win a copy of Flea Market Finds with Matthew Mead!